"Whatever happened to you, Seraph?", Chopper inquired, as if he was one to ask. He'd appeared next morning and looked like he'd lost about 20 pounds. I could tell he'd just butted heads with Lady. He didn't yet know what had happened in the ruined city where I and Sight were sent off to. I didn't feel like telling him about the knights. As rational as he was, I wasn't sure he'd be able to keep his head cool about those people."Chopper-san...help", I was overjoyed, seeing as he could be my savior. I couldn't really take anymore of Lady nursing me and luckily, Chopper arrived in the nick of time. To be fair, his being here just meant that Lady wouldn't bother with me. Chopper didn't exactly nurse me, he just stood guard to prevent Lady from coming to our bunker. Since I was bedridden, Chopper had to sleep on the ground. He didn't think anything of it. He would just lie flat on the ground, unbothered by anything that might have been down there with him. And when he slept, he slept li

"Why?! Why did you...?""Dalia", he lifted his hand as she took a step away from him, "I did it for-""Don't say it was for me! Weren't you just scared of him?", her faced twisted into a hysterical expression and she laughed, half mad.He didn't have any words to say. Of course, he wasn't scared. Scared of that little midget Hodel? He didn't even feel a tingle all the while that man was spouting nonsense and yelling at him. It had happened in the spur of a moment. He didn't realize it until he'd heard Dalia's scream in the distance."Murderer!", he saw fear in her eyes as she ran off but he followed her.She had run towards the abandoned block where he chased her. Realizing she had nowhere to go, she really thought she'd be killed just like Hodel. "You...something is wrong with you. You can never be loved."She said and looked at him like he was a stranger. And seeing that fear on her face, he thought she was just like the other

I felt the dry wind stinging my cheek. It felt like it might erode away at my dried up figure. I thought there must be a sandstorm brewing somewhere. And before me, that same vision I'd held hands with back then.I wondered if this is what eternity felt like. If so, I thought I'd never really get out of it."If I hadn't met you..."The possibilities after that sentence seemed infinite to me. But I knew in my heart, even if I could do it all again, I would invariably choose to meet her every single time.Despite everything, I still believed in ridiculous things like fate and destiny. And in my head, I was fated to meet her. *******************It had been about a month since our return. And I had recuperated enough to continue my sparring sessions with Deli once again. I noticed she was entirely different from what I remembered. I no longer felt I could beat her in a fair battle. But then again, I was clueless about the extent of my own power.I figured since Deli had had to drink bl

"Why are you crying?", I mumbled, but I'd only imagined it. She wasn't crying.I remembered Lady dragged me out of the cold water after two hours of me motionlessly floating all around her bath. She must have hated it, for she didn't just drag me out, she dragged me through the forest all the way back. I was covered in mud and leaves and twigs by the time we were back. And to top it all off, I was buck naked. I was so dazed that I didn't seem to care. And when I snapped out of that daze, I still didn't care.I suppose I was grateful to Deli for wrapping me up though. Although her piercing, disgusted gaze did attempt to murder me, I pretended that I hadn't noticed it. She really thought little of me now.A couple of days went by and I seemed to be in and out of the daze fairly often. I didn't think I was capable of feeling this way, but things didn't seem real to me sometime. I spent most of my day watching June at work. Luckily, she didn't mind it."You should be able to get there by

"It was 44 days of hell", Lady said that night, when June had left us alone in the hall, "If Lubbock hadn't found her when he did and if I hadn't stopped by..."She didn't finish her sentence."44 days of hell?", I sat very close to Lady so we were almost whispering.She was fiddling with Chopper's lighter. I wondered if she had more of his things that he hated sharing."This is why we don't allow visitors in Valhalla. She hates strangers."Lights were really dimmed down and I was beginning to get sleepy.She continued, "And she hates going out too.""Is she the treasure?", I asked, thinking back on what Lubbock had said once."The treasure? Oh that treasure? Yes, you talked about it before. Yes, she is. She is, indeed.""The treasure?""Yes, she is the treasure. She's the reason we've never left this place either. We decided to stay because this was a place where she could feel safe. I thought I had to protect her", Lady explained.She was beginning to look sleepy too."So how'd she